It’s been two weeks, and that means it’s time for a brand-spankin’ new episode of Cyborgs: A Bionic Podcast, with hosts John S. Drew and Paul K. Bisson continuing their bi-weekly retrospective of The Six Million Dollar Man‘s second season. For this installment, they’ve enlisted the assistance of none other than award-winning science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer as they revisit the season’s fifth episode, “The Seven Million Dollar Man.”
From John’s write-up:
“Steve learns of the existence of a second cyborg despite Oscar and Rudy’s best attempts to keep the information from him. He is further disturbed to see that Oscar is intent on making this second bionic project work even though there are clear signs that Barney Miller (Monte Markham), the race car driver horribly injured in an accident, is not handling being bionic as well as Steve has managed. When Barney decides that he will make sure he is a unique being even if it means killing Rudy, it’s up to Steve to stop him.”
A favorite episode of mine as well as my daughters, ”The Seven Million Dollar Man” finally answers the question lots of folks had to be asking by this point in the series run: If the bionic technology worked so well with Steve, how long would it be before we saw another cyborg? Monte Markham, who portrays the troubled bionic Barney Miller (later renamed “Hiller” when ABC launched the famous (and unrelated) sitcom Barney Miller the next year), actually was original Cyborg novelist Martin Caidin’s preferred choice to portray Steve Austin on screen.
So, tune in as John, Paul, and Robert Sawyer wax nostalgic. Check out their review and discussion: Cyborgs: A Bionic Podcast – “The Seven Million Dollar Man”
